twenty-three

We spent a lot of time with the Salvation Army last week at their state-of-the-art Belkin House location on Homer St. in downtown Vancouver. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings, a smaller portion of our team showed up at about 7:15 to help serve breakfast to their residents and then help prepare lunch for the day.

Each group had the chance to work in their huge industrial kitchen and learn quick cooking tips from their master chef, Leo. Leo had a bit of a rough exterior, but once you got to know him, he warmed up and was pretty fun to work with. I spent Thursday morning with him and the rest of their kitchen staff, mostly helping load and unload the dish washer and run clean dishes around the room to their proper storage spaces. Others helped put together pita sandwiches, potato salad, and prep coffee for the upcoming meal. Let me say, from what I’ve heard about the Pita Pit’s kitchen here in Bellingham, I would have to say we did it much better and much, much cleaner. I’m not the greatest hand in the kitchen, but I really enjoy being told exactly what to do and helping out how I can.

We wrapped up our time with Salvation Army on Thursday by helping them paint some of their dormitories, clean toys in the children’s area, and sort clothes and donated goods in their basement storage area. Thursday was one of the first times we all worked together at a single location, as we had been spread around the city all week with Urban Promise and gone in shifts to Agape thus far. I took leave from each little project around the building and walked around to check in with most of the groups. It was fun to sneak around the big complex and see our group helping out all over. Whether it was painting or sorting through obscure Canadian board games (Snifty Snakes anyone?), our group jumped in head first and was as willing as ever to work hard at whatever the people needed.

We ended the day early with Salvation Army with a great lunch they had prepared as a thank you and then had some free time to walk back to our location before we began the next project for the day. Some people stuck around the church that afternoon, while others wandered about the city. Some slept. And some of us drove out to Horseshoe Bay to move 3.5 tons of bricks. That’s right. 3.5 tons. In about an hour and a half.

Part of the work we had set up for the week had been coordinated through a former INN student, Ryan Valle, who is now a student up a Regent College. A pastor friend and Regent professor he knows, Paddy Ducklow, needed some help moving bricks for a project he’s planning to do this spring. So, we volunteered and drove up to help him Thursday afternoon. In exchange for our help with the bricks, he came back to First Baptist for dinner and spoke to our group while we ate, encouraging us, sharing with us about what it means to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s interaction in our lives and how we can be actively engaging the gifts God gives us. It was hard work and it was very worthwhile to be encouraged late in the week as we began to wrap up our time in Vancouver.

Finally, our last group went to Agape on E. Hastings Thursday night. As I mentioned before, the other groups had been holding back a bit from discussing the experiences they had the previous nights, so once Fred and Sarah’s group returned Thursday night, we had a longer discussion about what we had all seen on the streets and in the lives of the women we had met. While much was said, I think one of the most important things we all learned was simply to remember the women we had met. One of the girls on the trip told a story of walking back towards the church we had started from and meeting a woman sitting on the curb. After talking with her briefly, we began to walk away. Katie turned around to say goodbye to the woman and she responded by simply asking Katie to "remember me." The significance of these words is hard to explain. Our act of going to help on Hastings was significant, but it seems that we are really required to go away, into our own world, and remember the people we met there. We should not forget the faces, the sadness, and even the hope we met on that street. We met our brothers and sisters there. They are not some "other" that we forget. They are us and we must remember them.

I think by this point in the trip, everyone had begun to become a bit overwhelmed with all they had seen in the city. Exhaustion, sleep deprivation seemed to be setting in. And through it, people seemed to be bonding, growing into the friendships they were establishing. I think that’s something that’s still happening this week and will continue in the weeks to come. Through being overwhelmed, I believe God was able to teach us a lot that we will all be starting to discover as we get back into the regular swing of things. I pray we can be open to that.

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